Tripura leader seen lying on bed of cash expelled by party

Samar Acharjee (ANI Photo)

A local CPI-M leader has been expelled from the party after television channels aired footage of him lying on bundles of cash in a bed, with his ruling party taking strong exception to the brash act.

A member of the local committee of the party in Tripura’s Jogendranagar area, Samar Acharjee, was expelled by the district committee after discussing the matter with the leaders of the state committee.

The party was reportedly angered by Acharjee’s comments in the video, directed at other party members. “I am not a hypocrite like other party members who depict themselves as proletariat, yet have huge amounts of money,” he was heard saying in the video.

On Saturday afternoon, the district committee leaders sent a notice to Acharjee, a contractor by profession, and asked him to explain himself. Acharjee’s reply was not found satisfactory by the leaders. The decision to expel Acharjee was also ratified by CPI-M’s state committee later in the evening.

A party leader said Acharjee has been expelled on three grounds – tarnishing the party’s image, indulging in improper procurement of money and breach of discipline. Acharjee had withdrawn money from his own account to fulfill his ‘dream’ of sleeping on a bed of money.

“We do not support this kind of immoral work. It seems the highest possible penal measures will be initiated against him,” CPI-M state secretary Bijan Dhar had said earlier.

Opposition parties in the state have also raised the question how Acharjee got a contract to construct 2400 low-cost sanitary toilets in three Agartala Municipal Council wards. In the video, Acharjee had said that he earned Rs 2.5 crore from that contract.